Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the Google I/O keynote session at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California on May 7, 2019.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Google parent company Alphabet is set to report earnings for its second quarter of 2019 after the bell on Thursday.
Here are the key numbers:
- Earnings per share: $11.30 per share expected, per Refinitiv survey of analysts
- Revenue: $38.15 billion expected, per Refinitiv
- Traffic acquisition costs: $7.27 billion, according to StreetAccount
Google’s stock fell last quarter after reporting decelerating ad revenue growth, though its stock is still up more than 8% so far this year. At the time, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat blamed YouTube for some of the slowdown during a call with investors.
YouTube has brought its parent company Google a heap of backlash over the past few years. The video platform has continued to face criticism for its handling of content with children and recommendation algorithms. And the company became embroiled in controversy last month when it flip-flopped its enforcement of its community standards regarding a video blogger accused of harassing a Vox.com producer about his sexuality.
Google now faces even broader threats to its business under the eye of U.S. and foreign antitrust regulators. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday it’s opening a broad antitrust review of big tech companies. Though it did not name specific companies, the department said it will review the practices of online platforms dominating areas including internet search. Google has about 90% market share in internet search in the U.S. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported the DOJ is planning a separate antitrust probe into Google.
Last quarter, Alphabet recorded a European Commission fine of $1.7 billion as a settlement for stifling competition in the online ad sector. In June, the company said it had begun to appeal the fine.
Google fell short of analyst estimates on a key metric known as traffic acquisition costs (TAC) last quarter. TAC represents the payments Google pays to companies like Apple to be the default search engine on their browsers. This quarter, the analysts are looking for $7.27 billion in TAC, according to StreetAccount.
